died, he was buried at Monte Cassino, his tomb survived all ‘vicissitudes of
history’, including bombardment by the Allies in the Second World War. His
rule wants to build a community, in which people could live together in
harmony and love of each other and of God. To do this, they are required to
take vows of celibacy, poverty and obedience, and to submerge personal
ambition into the greater good of the community.
27 July St Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373), Patron Saint of Sweden,
known for her astonishing ‘Revelations’ especially about the Nativity and the
Crucifixion, canonised because of her works of practical charity and religious
foundations of the Order of the Most High Saviour (or Bridgettines). She was
married at 13, had 8 children, became Lady in Waiting to the Queen of
Sweden, went on pilgrimages to Santiago and to the Holy Land. She went to
Rome where she wrote her ‘Sermo Angelicus’, dictated by an angel. Died in
Rome following her pilgrimage in 1373, her remains were taken to Vadstena
in Sweden.
5 August St Oswald of Northumbria, King and Martyr. (605-642) The
second of 7 sons of Ethelfrid, King of Northumbria, who was killed by
Redwald of East Anglia. His family fled to Scotland, where the children were
brought up at Iona. In 635 Oswald set up a wooden cross at a spot near
Hadrian’s Wall, later called ‘Hevenfelt’ nr Hexham, encouraged by a vision of
St Columba, in order to win back his father’s kingdom. After his victory, he
spread Christianity throughout his lands, aided by Aidan, who was sent from
Iona and established as bishop in Lindisfarne. According to Bede, Oswald
was the most powerful king in the North West, ‘uniting the Britons, Picts,
Scots and English’, he also was overlord over the Welsh kingdom of
Strathclyde and ‘sponsor’ at the baptism of Cynegils, king of Wessex, whose
daughter he married. Oswald was killed in the 8 th year of his reign by Penda
of Mercia at the battle of Maserfeld nr Shrewsbury. His body was
dismembered and later given to the monks of Bardney in Lindsey; some of
the bones were taken to St Peter’s in Gloucester, his head to St Peter’s
Church at Bamburgh Castle and later to Lindisfarne, where it was buried in
the coffin of St Cuthbert and transferred in 815 to Durham .His arm and leg,
taken to Peterborough in 948, were said to have remained incorrupt, which
was interpreted as a sign of sainthood – Strangely, I came across a painting
in Graz, Austria, in which Oswald was depicted as a helper in case of fire
and patron saint of firemen.
24 August St Bartholomew (1 st century) One of the 12 Apostles, his name
means ’Son of Tolmai’. He is probably identical with ‘Nathanael’, to whom
Jesus said that he had seen him under the fig tree, to which Nathanael gave
a profession of faith. Legend has it that he went to India, Armenia,
Mesopotamia and Persia to preach. This is probably why (as Eusebius tells
us) St Matthew’s Gospel in Hebrew was found in India during the 2 nd
century. St Bartholomew was martyred by being flayed alive, which makes
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